


Missing

by Knighttimerose (LilMissHammond)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Fluffy, I've started watching Buffy again, Jenny is only mentioned, my girlfriend helped me, no real plot, season one probably, this stemmed from a dream, what is plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 08:50:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8572051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilMissHammond/pseuds/Knighttimerose
Summary: An unaired episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which Giles is missing from the library so, naturally, everyone is highly concerned about him.





	

Willow stumbled through the heavy oak doors of the library, the haunting image still burned into her brain. She looked across the room to where Buffy, Xander and Riley sat around the large table, chatting.

“I hate this school,” Willow complained, causing everyone to glance over at her in concern. This was a very un-Willow like thing to say, especially so early on a Tuesday morning.

“What's wrong, Wil?” Buffy asked, shifting off of the table she'd been sitting on with a look of concern. She watched Willow slowly walk towards the group, looking rather pale. If Buffy had to guess, something decidedly Hellmouth-y had gone down outside.

“There was a girl in the cafeteria,” Willow started, sinking into an empty chair at the table. “Her eyes were all bloodshot and weird.”

“Willow, that's pretty normal,” Xander said in his best comforting voice, as he leaned forwards in his chair.

“Yeah, Willow, I'm sure she just didn't get much sleep,” Riley added.

Willow shook her head, frustrated. She knew this wasn't something normal. “No, you don't understand. Her eyes were _bleeding._ ”

Silence fell over the library as everyone stared at Willow in shock or confusion, or both. Buffy walked around the table to put a gentle hand on her best friend's shoulder.

“Willow, are you sure you're not just… overreacting?” She wanted to believe Willow was telling the truth, but it just sounded so, well, daytime television.

“I know what I saw, Buffy, she was crying blood,” Willow said. She glanced around the room automatically, looking for Giles to back her up even though he hadn't seen it. He usually agreed with Willow on things.

Riley noticed her movements, and glanced towards Giles's office. She hadn't really thought about it, but Giles seemed to be missing. By now he'd usually have popped out from behind a stack of books and started asking questions in his soothing English voice. “Where's Giles at?” Riley questioned.

“He's…” Buffy trailed off as she looked around the library also. “Oh. Well, I just sort of assumed he was in his office.” This made Xander look up too, curious to where the librarian could have gone.

“Maybe he's out getting more books?” Willow said with a small frown.

“Or maybe he's off canoodling with Miss Calendar,” Xander suggested. Riley shot him a filthy look, that went mostly unnoticed.

Buffy looked back down at Willow, who seemed to have regained the colour in her cheeks. Just as well, Buffy was about ready to sweep everything off of the table and make her lie down before she fainted, or something. “Are you sure this is Hellmouth related? Something we need to worry about?” she asked one more time, just to be certain. Crying blood definitely didn't sound like something your average high schooler did.

“Absolutely,” Willow replied firmly. “And there's probably a book in here that mentions crying blood, right?”

Riley nodded, already getting up. “I'm sure there will be. This library has everything. And we might be able to find Giles while we're searching, maybe he's just… lost in some dusty old tome upstairs.” She headed towards the staircase, glancing over her shoulder at the others. “Buffy, come help me look?”

Buffy nodded. “Willow, you and Xander check out the books down here. And watch the door just in case Giles shows up.” She made to follow Riley up the stairs.

Xander tossed a smile at Willow, although it seemed rather forced. “Oh goody,” he said, and by his tone Willow could tell he was unhappy. “I get to spend another afternoon flipping through dusty books to research something that might possibly kill us.”

Willow just shook her head and stood up, turning to the books behind her. She really hoped that they'd find something, and soon. Things could, and often would, get worse quickly at Sunnydale High.

 

\---

 

“So, Buffy,” Riley started, nose buried into the book in her hands. She wasn't really paying attention though, her mind was stuck on something Xander had said. “Do you think Giles and Miss Calendar will get together?”

Buffy, who had been skimming the titles of books on the shelves behind Riley, paused and turned around. “They seem to like each other a lot,” she said carefully. Buffy wasn't one to lie to her friends often, especially not over something silly, but she didn't want to hurt her friends either. “But who knows. I suppose it’s up to them, isn’t it? They are adults, after all.”

Riley sighed, shoving the book back into the shelf. She knew Buffy knew that she kind of liked the librarian, but she didn't want to say it out loud. “How's Angel been?” she asked, eager to change the subject.

“He's been Angel. Showing up in graveyards to warn me about some imminent danger and disappearing into the darkness again.” Buffy shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest. “Although, he hasn't shown up for a few days, since those vampires at the park.” That had been a rather eventful night. Buffy had been patrolling the graveyard, and then Angel had slinked out of the shadows to warn her about some vampires that were lurking at the nearby park. She'd expected Angel to be cryptic guy and just walk away again, but he'd followed her like a puppy-dog until she'd killed the vampires. Then he'd insisted on walking her home. Buffy had never figured out why.

Riley sighed and leaned against the bookshelf. “Guys are always so much more trouble than they're worth. Speaking of, I'm starting to think maybe Giles is in trouble… Do you think he somehow found out about the girl with the bleeding eyes and tried to help her but got hurt?” Buffy shook her head.

“We'd have heard something by now, though. And knowing Giles, there'd be books splayed out all over the place from his research. He's somewhere on campus,” she said firmly. Buffy didn't want to think about anything bad that might have happened to Giles.

“Definitely,” Riley agreed. She pushed herself off from the bookshelf and offered Buffy a smile. “So let's go find him."

 

Neither Willow nor Xander had found anything even remotely of use, so they too agreed it was time to find Giles. Xander suggested that they split up, and after a small debate on who should go with who, Buffy and Riley headed off to the other end of campus. Buffy tucked a small stake into the waistband of her jeans before they left the library, just in case they ran into trouble. The two of them wandered through the halls, keeping their voices low lest they should run into Principal Snyder; they should've both been in History class.

As they walked out of the hallways with no sign of Giles, Riley slid down the sunglasses that had been perched on her head and frowned. She'd just had a thought. “Buffy?”

“Hm?” Buffy was shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand as she scanned the area for the British librarian. It was awfully sunny, as per usual around Sunnydale, and Buffy was regretting not bringing her own sunglasses.

“Giles can't be with Miss Calendar.”

Buffy stopped short, turning to face Riley with her own frown. “What?”

“Well, she'll be teaching her class right now, won't she? I doubt Giles would interrupt her unless it was something of utmost importance,” Riley said. She tilted her head slightly, thinking. So if Giles wasn't with Miss Calendar, then where was he? It wasn't like him to disappear from the library for so long, and he hadn't tried to contact Buffy. Which meant he was in trouble, right? Riley knew that as a Watcher Giles was more than capable of taking care of himself, but that didn't mean that vampires couldn't get the jump on him. It'd happened once before, it could happen again.

“You're right,” Buffy agreed, pulling Riley out of her thoughts. A look of concern crossed her face. “Where are you, Giles?” she muttered to herself.

 

They continued walking, headed toward the gym at the back of the school. They didn't have any reason to suspect that Giles would be in there, especially during class hours, but at the same time they didn't want to leave any part of the school unchecked. And it was a good thing, too.

“Uh, Riley,” Buffy muttered, as she peeked through the half open door to the gymnasium. “Did I just drop my sanity back there?”

Riley laughed, slightly confused, as she stepped forwards to join Buffy at the door. “I don't think so,” she said, before her eyes were greeted with a sight that made her think she might have lost it as well.

Rupert Giles, the slightly stuffy school librarian from England who always wore tweed suits, was jogging down to the end of the basketball court, dressed in what looked like, well, the school's gym uniform. A pair of slightly tight shorts replaced his usual pressed pants, paired with a large tank top with the school's emblem stitched on the back. Even his shiny black shoes had been replaced with trainers.

“Uh…” Riley was unable to form any sort of coherent sentence as her eyes followed Giles. The only thought that popped into her brain was ‘ _he actually does have a nice butt_ ’.

Buffy herself could no longer form words as she watched Giles run around with the basketball team. She was slightly surprised that Giles owned any clothing that wasn't tweed, and that he was managing to keep up with the game. There had been a few times where Buffy had taken off after vampires and Giles had struggled to keep pace with her. Maybe that had something to do with this spectacle happening before her eyes. She stepped forwards through the door in an almost trance-like state, interested to see what would happen. Riley followed behind her, her eyes fixed on the older man.

Giles swivelled on the spot as the ball switched to his team’s hands, now ahead of the pack of players whom he'd been following down the court. He realized an instant too late that he was now in the line of fire. The ball came flying at his face, and he quickly snatched it out of the air without thinking; his reflexes were still pretty sharp. His rational thought however… Every single player was now charging down the court towards him and his team's goal. And some of the kids on the opposing team were rather burly. With a small noise of panic, Giles tossed the ball away from himself. It went soaring over the heads of any of his teammates, right towards the door where Buffy was standing wide eyed.

“Hey!” Buffy yelped, hands coming up to catch the ball before it hit her in the face. Everyone turned to stare at her, and without thinking she turned slightly and threw the ball towards the closet hoop. It swished through, then bounced along the court to rest near Giles's feet.

“Nice shorts, Giles,” Riley called out to him, for lack of anything better to say. A faint blush seeped into his cheeks as he hurried off the court towards his bags on the bleachers.

Buffy turned to face Riley again, still at a loss for words. It wasn't everyday that she saw Giles in small shorts trying to play basketball.

“Well,” Riley smiled at her. “At least he's not in trouble.”

**Author's Note:**

> I can't write Cordelia to save my life, so I threw in one of my favourite OCs instead. Also, I don't think Cordy would flirt with Giles in a million years.
> 
> If you guys like what I write, consider supporting me by [Buying Me a Coffee](https://ko-fi.com/A2169Y9)


End file.
